Chapter 23.

As soon as the words left White’s mouth, Xander’s swords froze in place, unable to budge an inch, they could neither move forward or retreat.

White caught both of Xander’s broadswords, each one pinched between her thumb and index fingers. It all happened in an instant right when Xander had swung down at her shoulders from overhead to her rear. She twisted her body gracefully and used Xander’s forward momentum to slam him heavily against the ground. A wide crater formed around where his body hit the ground. Xander’s HP immediately dropped down to 1% as he groaned in pain.

With his energy fully spent he could no longer move. 

The vile woman who’d floored him stepped up on top of his body and looked down at him sadistically. She took a leisurely stroll on top of Xander’s body; when she reached his head, she stopped and rested the tip of her right foot on his helmet’s chin piece.

“How about we make a deal? Kiss my foot then become my loyal servant and I’ll consider letting you off the hook.” After she said that, she removed the tip of her foot from his chin and dangled it in front of his face, but she didn’t lower it. She wanted him to willingly submit to her.

Uwah, she actually had this side to her. Was she on a power trip, or did this ability affect her personality too? Her personality really sucked.

“Ugh. Over... my dead body.” Xander groaned out defiantly in rage under White’s humiliation.

“Good, I like my men strong-willed. Then, until the next time we meet. I’ll be sure to make you submit to me without the need to draw on this ability.”

“Do you even know who I am? No, forget it, that is not important. A loss is a loss. The loser’s name doesn’t mean anything to the victor in a fight. But, I’ll remember this, woman. Next time, I will kill you. I swear on my honor!”

“Nice final words, I might even fall for you if you were stronger than me. Though you’d also need to be stronger than the guy I’m most interested in at present. Anyway, I’ll look forward to our next fight. Goodbye for now, Mr. Death Knight. Our fight was truly a blast before I used this ability.”

When White raised her hand up to the sky, white energy coalesced around her arm and shot up high into the clouds forming a single long blade of pure concentrated energy.

“Xander! You can do it! Live!” I cried out hoping for some sort of hero to swoosh in and save the day. I’d gotten too invested in Xander’s underdog story that I forgot I was in the middle of a bet.

“Xander, fight! Don’t let her step all over you and get the last laugh! Stand up!” Yin was similarly on the edge of her seat, my lap, hoping for a miracle last-second buzzer-beater reversal turn-around of the century.

The two of us held our breaths as White, without hesitation, mercilessly swung her arm down. When it was only a hair's breadth away from slicing into Xander’s helmet, a voice suddenly called out, “White, wait! Don’t kill him!”

White’s hand froze in place just before her finishing blow cleaved Xander’s head in two.

The identity of the person who stopped her was none other than DH1M.

“Huh? Who? Oh, you. That’s right, I almost forgot you were here.”

“Forgot I was here? How could you forget when you asked me to ensure your safety after this?”

“I did? Oh, right... I did say that, didn’t I? Anyway, what are you interrupting my fight right at the very end for, kid?”

“White, are you okay? You seem a bit off.”

“I’ve never felt better. Now, what do you want? You’re starting to test my patience. There’s only one person I have the patience to wait on, and it certainly isn’t you.” A mysterious smile formed on her face when she said that.

What’s going on? Is that really White? Wait, when she was activating this ability, she mentioned letting her body be a vessel to house the power of a goddess. This kid, so she’d hidden something like this the entire time. No wonder she’s so cocky and full of herself. She can house the power of a powerful goddess from another world she cleared and now thinks she’s undefeatable because she can borrow that tiny bit of strength. But I guess that at least explains why she’s a top ranker on the national leaderboards.

“White, the quest would very likely give better rewards if we capture him alive. Killing him would be a waste.”

“Capturing me alive? Just kill me, I won’t cooperate and go easily with you damned heroes.”

“Right? Isn’t that obvious?” White agreed with Xander’s words.

“How about this, if you cooperate with us I will give you this legendary dragon slayer sword. This way you don’t die, and you will even get a strong sword. I’ll have you know, this sword is very powerful and I can’t even bring out its true strength yet. You never know, when you fight White next it could even help you beat her.” Ah, DH1M started to bargain using my former carpet. If Xander accepted the deal, I wonder how he would feel if I told him that it was previously a part of my carpet?

“There’s no way a random little sword from a fledgling like you can be… any...”

Xander stopped mid-sentence when his gaze focused on the legendary sword DH1M pulled out in front of him. He scrutinized the sword more closely and fell into deep thought while still under White’s feet.

“Well, are you interested?”

Seriously, this kid is pretty smart. He realized with the difficulty of this quest he’s sure to get a decent reward for it, and now he’s even willing to go so far as to gamble with my former carpet on the line to get a better reward. Little punk.

Well, since the underdog I inadvertently started rooting for made it out of it alive, I guess I can be generous for once. I can give him the legendary sword I use to scrub the inside of my toilet as a reward for his efforts I guess. A toilet brush should be enough of an upgrade from the carpet for a punk like him, right. He’s not quite ready for one of my clothes hangers.

“Can I have some time to think it over?”

“I’m sorry, you see, I have a buyer already lined up who’s really interested in this sword. If you don’t act now you’re going to miss out on this great steal of an offer. You should really get your hands on this legendary sword while supplies last. You’ll never get a deal this great if you pass it up here.”

My eyes turned into dead fish. For an honest-looking snot-nosed brat, he sure knew how to run a scam. I should be warier of him in the future. Maybe he’s just been acting the part of a noob this entire time on a new account. That, or he’s actually a bonafide scammer in his world.

“What! You have other people trying to buy it and it’s a time-sensitive deal at that? Shit, where do I sign?” 

XANDER! Why are you so damn gullible!

“No need to sign anything, you simply need to give your promise that you will cooperate with us. Once we complete our quest, this sword will be all yours.”

“Hey, you two, hurry it up. We’ve got to get out of here before any nuisances start showing up. After the big light show I put on, before I was so rudely interrupted, there are bound to be those who come by to check out what happened here.”

“Hero, you have yourself a deal.”

“Great.”

DH1M extended his hand out to Xander and the two of them shook hands on it. As soon as they did, White jumped down from Xander’s body seeming to have lost all interest in him. She grabbed the dagger, took it out of her body, then slid it into the sheath she pulled out earlier in the fight. When it was sheathed, she casually flicked her hand and the sheathed dagger plunged itself into the ground beneath her feet. 

She looked back up from the ground and turned her head to the side almost as if she was looking at something in the distance.

It felt like I’d locked eyes with her through the screen and it honestly felt a bit creepy. A weird tingle ran down my back when a mysterious grin floated to her face. She raised her hand up a bit, but it immediately fell down to the side. It sort of felt like she was about to wave her hand, but before she had the chance her eyes closed. The aura around her gradually died down as the immense strength that filled her body drained away.

White collapsed head-first onto the ground, seemingly devoid of life.

Without any warning, a lightning bolt shot down from the sky and landed where the trio was located.

When the flash of blinding light dissipated. all three of them were gone, not a single trace of them remained. The only thing left behind was the aftermath of the heated battle outside Xander’s castle.